UN aid appeal for Yemen ‘shockingly underfunded’

UNITED NATIONS, May 18 (APP): A senior United Nations relief official has called for increased global efforts to support the more than 13 million people in need of immediate, life-saving assistance in Yemen, following his visit to the conflict-torn country.

“Seeing the plight of the Yemeni people at first-hand reinforces the need for national and international humanitarian actors to scale up their response to protect and support the population,” John Ging, Director of Operations in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

Ging appealed for an urgent increase in attention and support for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, which requires $1.8 billion this year, but remains “shockingly underfunded” at only 16 per cent.